


I just wanna know if you will let me be your world

by Worldclassbeauty



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, California, F/F, Summer Love, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-06-30 10:53:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19851655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Worldclassbeauty/pseuds/Worldclassbeauty
Summary: Cake by the ocean





	1. News

**Author's Note:**

> First Stranger Things fic.

Eleven spied on her friends. She knew that she shouldn’t but after spying on Mike and the boys she couldn’t help herself.

She started with mike, he was at the games store staring at an Atari with Lucas, they’d been hanging out a lot lately.

Next up was Dustin, he was with Steve and Robin, judging by his cheerful mood and laughter.

Then came Will, sweet Will. He was in his room writing something, by the looks of it a new campaign for D’n’D. The boys left him alone too much, maybe she should ask Max if they could bring him next time they hung out. Max, Max was the last person on her spy list. Hop always told her to save the sweets for last.

Max was singing, so she was most likely in her room.

She was singing into her hair brush, looking at herself in the mirror.

“Don't get me wrong  
If I'm looking kind of dazzled  
I see neon lights  
Whenever you walk by!” 

El laughed softly to herself and got closer, Max wasn’t the greatest singer but it was a sweet little show she unknowingly put on anyway. 

“Don't get me wrong  
If you say hello and I take a ride  
Upon a se-“

She stopped suddenly and turned around, El was now only inches away from her face. Max closed her eyes and smiled.

“Jane?” she asked “Is that you?”

El ripped the blindfold off of face and sat up from the bed. How had Max know she was there?

Then her phone rang, she hurried off of the bed and went to answer.

“Maybe I should nickname you Stalker instead of Lucas” a soft voice teased thru the phone.

“I-eh” El didn’t know what to say.

“So did you spy on everyone or am I special?” she asked.

“You are special” El answered “I mean I checked up on everyone but you are special”

An amused laugh could be heard from the other end.

“You are pretty special too Jane” Max replied.

“Come over?” El asked.

“I’d love to” Max said and El could hear rustling in the background, she was already packing.

“See you in 20?”

“You’ve got it” Max replied before hanging up.

El waited an hour before Max showed up, she looked absolutely ecstatic.

“You are late. I worried” El said as Max finally reached her on her bike.

“I know, I’m sorry, but I’ve got great news!” she exclaimed while getting off the bike.

“What?” El asked with a smile, Max’s joy was robbing off on her.

“So before I left my mom told me that she had talked to my dad in Cali about visiting for the summer”

“Oh” El said, her smile falling. Max was leaving.

“No, hear me out! So mom thought I might like to bring a friend with me…”

“And?”

“So she called Hopper to ask if you could come with me. Hopper said no…”

“Oh” El replied again, it seemed right no way Hop would let her fly to California alone with Max.

“So, mom asked if you come if Hopper went too and he said yes. Then he asked if he could bring Mrs Byers and Will. And mom said that they’d have to stay at a hotel but yes” Max said in a big finish kind of way.

“You’ve lost me” El said confused.

“You, me, Will, Hopper and Mrs Byers are going to California!” Max clarified.

“Really?” El asked in disbelieve.

El took Max’s hand and pulled her thru the house into her room, and closed the door behind them with her powers.

She laid on her bed and patted the spot next to her, Max’s spot, it was the right side of the bed. Max said it was hers beacuse she was always right. Max took the hint and laid down next to El. Within a minute El had her head rested on Max’s shoulder and her arm’s wrapped around her. They laid like that for more than an hour, Max telling her about California and her life there. After a bit El used her powers to turn on the radio, Max gently wiped the blood from her nose away with her sleeve. El was tracing lazy patterns on Max’s stomach, where her shirt had ridden up and was about to dose off when they heard the front door open and slam shut. El sat up quickly and reached an arm out to keep Max behind her. To keep her safe.

Then the door to her room opened and she saw Mike first then Will. Mike stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the girls, Max’s hair was messy from laying down her shirt hadn’t completely fallen into place and she still had one arm around El’s waist.

His gaze then fell on El who had calmed down a bit after realizing that it was just them.

“Hey” Will said shyly from his spot behind Mike.

“El, we are going to California!” he almost yelled.

El nodded, yes she was going to California with Max and Will.

“I eh, after mom told me I asked if Mike could come, his parents said yes” Will explained.

“I dumped you” El spoke, deadpan, to Mike.

His smile fell a bit but he nodded.

“I know; I am going for Will just like you are going for Max” he said.

El nodded, good.

“So…what are you girls doing?” Mike asked

“We were just talking” Max answered, annoyed.

“we were cuddling and listening to music” El said at the same time. 

“Oh” Mike said as he looked at a blushing Max.

“Right, we should get back, we have to meet the boys remember?” Will said, trying to ease the tension.

He didn’t know if it was leftovers from The Upsidedown or if he was just that good. But he knew Max liked girls from the moment he met her. Lucas and Dustin were making fools of themselves fighting over her, and honestly he was surprised when her and Lucas began dating. But then again this was a small town, people talked, he was hiding too after all. But after the first time he had seen her with El at the mall he knew, Max had fallen for her. He wasn’t sure if she had realized it herself, but he knew.

Will managed to get Mike to come with him before things got too awkward, it was going to be two long weeks in California if he couldn’t make Mike see that El didn’t want him anymore.

After the boys left the girls ordered pizza, Hopper had nightshift or so he said, El knew he was with Joyce. She was happy for him. It also wasn’t a secret where they lived anymore, so Hop had given her the green light to order pizza when he had to work late.

They ate in front of the TV, when El suddenly remembered, she turned off the TV and turned towards a confused looking Max.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“How did I know what?” Max countered.

“That I was watching you from the Void?” El asked.

Max shook her head.

“I don’t know. I could just feel you I guess” she said with a shrug.

“How did it feel?” El pressed. 

“jeez Jane I don’t know! I just- it felt warm and safe somehow, like when it’s cold and you put on a big warm sweater.”

“I want to try something, do you trust me?” El asked.

Max smiled.

“Jane I trust you with my life”

El made Max stand in the middle of the living room before she went into the other room and put the blindfold on.

Once she was in The Void she focused on Max, when she saw her she walked right up in front of her. Her plan was to try and touch her, Max would then tell her if she felt it and where.

She started off easy enough, she touched Max’s hand, after a few seconds Max brought her hand up to cover the hand El was touching, she could feel her.

Next El placed her hand on Max’s cheek, God how she wanted to be there for real to feel Max’s warm soft skin beneath her hand.

Max once again brought her hand up to cover where El was touching. That’s when El realized how close she was standing.

“Jane? It’s so soft almost like it isn’t there at all like a ghost touch” she spoke right before El pulled the blindfold off.

It was confirmed then, Max could sense her in The Void, she could feel when El touched her. 


	2. California girls. We're undeniable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a late night talk.

It took a week for the adults to plan the trip to California. The five of them would drive to Indianapolis at night and catch an early flight at 7am to Los Angles on Monday and arrive Monday at 5pm. They’d rent a car and drive to the motel Max’s dad had recommended. They had gotten 3 rooms, one for Max and El, one for Will and Mike and one for Mrs. Byers and Hopper. Max was convinced that it was only do to the adults wanting to bone.

They would stay for 10 days before flying back home.

The night before they left they were all gathered at the Byers house, eating pizza and watching movies. The boys would sleep in the living room and the girls in Mikes room.

Max was sure that if Hopper knew how she felt about El he wouldn’t let her sleep in the room, let alone bed, as Eleven. But here she was, the two of them squeezed together on Will’s bed. Max’s heart was pounding as El snuggled up to her. They hadn’t talked about the fact Max could feel El in The Void, but Max could tell that it was bothering El, that she didn’t know why, why Max was the only one who could sense her.

“Max?” El softly asked lifting her head slightly from Max’s chest.

“Yeah?” Max whispered back.

“I’m sorry”

“What? You have nothing to be sorry for Jane” Max said confused.

El sat up on the bed, her body leaning over Max due to the small size of the bed. The lights were off in the room, but the moonlight shining thru the window was enough to illuminate Max’s soft features. 

“For how I treated you when we first met. I’m sorry I made you fall on your skateboard in the gym, and for not shaking your hand and for ignoring you for 6 months.” She said, eyes cast down in shame.

“It’s okay Jane…” Max said brining her hand up to cup El’s cheek.

El shook her head.

“I hurt you” she said.

Max smiled softly and sat up, she leaned in and rested her forehead against El’s.

“I forgive you” she said.

El let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She had a long list of regrets from opening the gates to getting Benny killed, and somewhere in the middle was rejecting Max.

Neither of them moved, they sat there faces inches apart with El almost in Max’s lap.

“I like that you call me Jane, only you and Hop do it” El admitted in a whisper.

“well, it’s your name” Max replied.

El shrugged.

“I have been Eleven since I was born” she said brining her hand down to rub at her tattoo, it was a nervous habit.

Max pulled away from her, missing the look of disappointment on El’s face.

“Did anyone tell you about the Holocaust during World War 2?” she asked

El shook her head.

“Well the Nazis, the bad guys, would put the Jews in camps and kill them either by starving them to death or working them to death or gassing them”

“like the one Dustin went to? ” El asked .

"No, these are bad camps" 

"bad camps" El said

Max nodded and continued.

“They would brand the Jewish prisoners with numbers, on their arms, to keep track of them”

“Like mine?” El asked.

“Yeah, that’s what I am saying, your tattoo means that you are strong, that you survived. But you don’t have to be Eleven anymore if you don’t want to. When I call you Jane it’s to give you a choice, with me you don’t have to be Eleven or have superpowers or save the day, you can just be Jane who likes strawberry ice-cream and shopping at The Gap” Max was pouring her heart out, her brain was screaming at her to stop but her mouth wasn’t having it. 

She was immediately engulfed in an embrace, which she returned right away. She felt some shaking as she held El and it took her a second to realize that El was crying, sobbing actually. She whispered sweet words to her and just held her. After what seemed like hours El tired herself out and fell asleep in Max’s arms.

Max glanced at the alarm on the bed table. They had to get up and into the car in 4 hours.

It was going to be a long drive.

She must have fallen asleep at some point because she woke up to the alarm blaring and El smiling at her.

“Come on, we have to pack the car” she said as she urged Max out of bed.

Max groaned but got up when El pulled the covers off of her.

Everyone were tired so the car was packed in silence, Hop did all the heavy lifting while Joyce made coffee and the kids put their backpacks and pillows into the backseat.

It only took 20 minutes for everyone to be done and get in the car.

It was the middle of the night so the streets of Hawkins were empty.

Hopper and Joyce were talking over some soft music on the radio. Will and Mike had fallen asleep sitting up while Max had closed her eyes leaning against the right side window. El curled up to her, she also laced their fingers together under the blanket. 

They fell asleep like that on the backseat, Will leaning against the left side window with Mike leaning on him and El doing the same with Max.

California is going to be great was El last thought before sleep took her.


	3. Hold my hand

El is in awe of the airport in Indianapolis, which Max found adorable.

It was 6:30 in the morning they had half an hour before take-off and El and her were trying to find a bathroom. Hop was drinking coffee from a vending machine while watching over the boys and Joyce was getting them checked in at the counter. The airport was relatively empty considering that it was a Monday during summer vacation. Just the odd businessman here and there. They found the bathroom soon enough and Max waited outside while El went into one of the stalls. Max wasn’t usually shy about going to the toilet with other girls, it was just how it was done after all. But when you were a girl and like another girl everything suddenly shifted, she couldn’t just talk to Jane from the other side of the stall or change next to her in gym class anymore out of fear of being called a pervert or something. One of the girls at her old gym class in L.A, Diana, had stared a little too long at Heather Dane when she was changing and was bullied so bad for being a ‘Dyke’ that her family ended up moving to Sacramento. Max refused to let that happen to her, she wasn’t sure if Jane knew how she felt, or even that girls could like girls, but she wouldn’t do anything that could be used against her, for Mike or Hopper or anyone else to say that she took advantage of Janes ignorance.

“We should get back” a soft and tired voice said next to her.

Max had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t even seen Jane come out from the bathroom.

She nodded and looked down at the soft, still damp, hand Jane was offering her. She took it, she was only human after all.

They walked hand in hand back to the gate where the others were waiting for them. Mike was staring at their joined hands as if they’d killed his puppy and fed it to him. Max let go of Janes hand as though it was on fire, she couldn’t tell what it was but the look in Mikes eyes when he looked at them, it made her feel so wrong so insecure. Jane, it seemed, hadn’t noticed and was talking to Hop all the while Max was getting more and more uncomfortable under Mikes intense stare.

Will ended up being her saviour as he grabbed Mikes elbow and shifted his attention away from Max.

She stood there, her heart hammering, palms sweating, frozen.

“Max, are you okay?” Joyce asked in her typical concerned-mom-tone.

It snapped her out of it. She nodded but Joyce wasn’t buying it, she grabbed Max’s hand and walked the away from the others.

“Sweetie, you can tell me if something is wrong, are you afraid of flying? She asked softly.

Max shook her head. No she had flown a ton of times.

“I don’t think Mike likes me” Max admitted, hating herself for doing so. 

“Oh, eh, do you want Mike to like you?” She asked a bit awkwardly

Max couldn’t help the amused huff that escaped her. If only she knew.

“No, I don’t think he likes that I’m friends with Jane” She clarified and honestly that was as close to the truth as she could get.

Joyce nodded and smiled.

“Mike was the one who found El, the one who kept her safe during the worst and most frightening time of their lives. But you are her normalcy now, her best friend and after their break up I think he’s afraid of becoming irrelevant to her” Joyce explained.

“But he treated her like a pet, dictating where she could go and stuff” Max protested.

Joyce shrugged.

“Boys are stupid” she said.

“Yeah well I’m just trying to show Jane that there is so much else she can do that sit in her room and wait for Mike Wheeler to drop by” Max said irritated.

Joyce laughed a bit.

“Jane is so smart and pretty and awesome, she deserves so much better than Mike. She deserves someone who put her first, someone who protects her without holding her back or sheltering her. Someone who’d make a complete fool of themselves just to see her smile or would bike to the other end of town in the pouring rain because she has a theory about somethi-“Max ranted before being cut off by the announcement to go to the gate for the flight to Los Angeles.

“come on sweeties, we don’t want to miss our plane” Joyce smiled at her before turning and walking back to the others who were now waiting in line.

How could she have been so stupid. Revealing her feeling like that to Joyce, she was just so easy to talk too.

She needed to be better at controlling her feeling regarding Jane. But that was easier said that done she realised as she caught up with the rest of the party and saw Jane and the boys laughing at something. Jane’s eyes caught hers and for a second everything stood still Jane’s eyes seemed to twinkle but that could just be the lack of sleep playing tricks with Max’s brain.

Max hadn’t realised that she had even moved before she was standing right in front of Jane.

“Are you okay?” she asked at she took Max’s hand in hers.

She loved holding Max’s hand, it made her feel safe and steady, Max was something real she could hold on to. Sure she could do it with Mike too, but Max was softer and warmer. She had noticed from a lot of hugs and sleepovers that Max naturally ran hot, and for El who was always cold do to her connection to The Void it was the perfect fit. Max was perfect. 

It turned out that while Max wasn’t afraid of flying Jane was absolutely terrified.

Hop and Joyce sat in front of the kids while El had the window seat, Max sat next to her, then Will then Mike at the aisle seat. During the entire take-off El had her eyes closed and squeezed Max’s hand so hard both of their hands were white. The lights began to flicker throughout the plane and El’s nose began to bleed, she wasn’t using her powers on purpose but her fear was causing the plane to go haywire.

“Jane look at me” Max said.

El shook her head, she refused to open her eyes.

Max could feel the boys stare at her back as she was turned towards El, she didn’t want an audience.

“Jane” Max leaned in and whispered in her ear “Trust me”

She had an idea, she pulled a bandana from her backpack, she kept it there just in case. She then gently tied it around El’s head so it covered her eyes.

“Go to The Void but focus on me, on my voice” Max explained.

El nodded and Max felt that shift, that warmth that let her know El was with her.

Max leaned in again.

“it’s a summer morning, the air is crisp and not too warm yet. You are in bed. Can you feel the madras beneath you?” Max asked.

El nodded and felt her body relax a little.

“There are birds chirping outside of your half open window”

“Birds?” El asked.

“Birds, now focus. You take a deep breath and smell the familiar sent of fresh eggos” Max continued. 

El took a deep breath on cue.

“You are there too” El said without thinking about it.

“Really?” Max asked surprised “what am I doing?”

“You are reading Wonder Woman next to me on the bed” El said with a soft smile.

“Jane, are you okay now?” Max asked, it seemed that she had really calmed down.

El took the bandana off of her eyes and gave Max a brilliant smile.

“Thank you Max, you always know how to take care of me”

Max blushed the same colour as her hair and refused to meet El’s eyes as she used the bandana to gently wipe the blood away from El’s nose.

The flight was pretty un eventful after that. About an hour into the flight El lifted the armrest/divider out of the way so Max could fully lean against her while she slept. After another 4 hours Max woke up and the two of them read the comics Max had brought. The landing went pretty much the same as take-off, El panicked, but this time Max knew what to do. So she had El put on the bandana and spoke to her in a gentle voice.

Getting from the airport to the motel in 6pm traffic was terrible and took way too long, with everyone but Max and El complaining about the heat.

The motel itself was pretty okay, it was one of the better motels in the area and it had a huge pool that the boys were itching to get in. all of their rooms were on the ground floor, facing the pool and next to each other with Joyce and Hop in the middle. Just in case.

The boys ran to their room, amazed at having a room to themselves and wanting to chance into swim clothes and get in the pool.

Joyce and Hop also mysteriously disappeared into their room and closed the curtain. Leaving Max and El sitting at the pool area for a bit.

“Thank you” El said suddenly as they sat at the edge of the pool with their feet in the water.

“What for?” Max asked. Her eyes closed and head tilted backwards, enjoying the evening sun.

El almost forgot what she was about to say as she saw how beautiful Max looked completely relaxed in the soft evening light, how it seemed to play with her hair.

“For helping me on the plane, you always know how to help me” She finally mustered

Max looked at her, green eyes bright with happiness.

“You are welcome” she grinned.

El didn’t know what came over her but she inched closer to Max until she was flush up against her.

Max smiled and went to put her arm around El, but she grabbed her arm and pulled it down between them, confusing Max. she gathered her courage and leaned in their nosed grazing as she ghosted her lips over Max’s. almost touching.

Max heart was hammering out of her chest, half an inch and their lips would be touching. This was it Jane was going to kiss he- before she could finish her thoughts cold water splashed both of them, making them jump apart. Max looked at the pool for the offender and found Mike in bathing trunks laughing at them from the water.

“Go chance, the water is great” he said. In a friendly enough tone, but it grated on Max’s nerves. He knew, he must have seen how close Jane was to kissing her and interrupted them.

Max looked over to El and found her equally wet and annoyed. She stood up and reached her hand out for Max to take. She did.

“Come on Max, let’s go chance” El said and glared at Mike as they left.

Once they unlocked the room they realised that while the boys had gotten twins they’d gotten a queen.

El turned to Max with a smile.

“We are sleeping together” she said with an ease.

Max almost chocked on her own spit at the suggestion. 


End file.
